New co-op general manager on the job
In his first media interview since becoming Socorro Electric Cooperative’s general manager, Joseph Herrera appeared forthcoming in answering every question posed to him — except one. He was reluctant to give his age.
At 37 — he’ll turn 38 next month — Herrera is young by comparison to other co-op GMs, who more typically are people approaching retirement and destined to be succeeded by someone else nearing the end of their professional careers. He eventually relented with the answer, setting aside concerns that he might be perceived as being too young and too inexperienced for the job.
But Herrera got an early start. He was scaling power poles before he reached his teens and seemed destineD to ascend to a position like the one he now holds ever since he was a boy growing up in Espanola.
“My father owned his own business and did work for the co-op out there. He used me and my brother as free labor,” Herrera said, and with that produced a framed photo of himself at age 12 strapped atop a pole with tools in hand.
Lots of Fatherly Advice
Herrera’s father, Julian, has been the guiding force in his life, he said. Several times during the interview Herrera evoked his father’s advice.
“I wanted to continue doing that kind of work, but dad said, ‘Why don’t you go down to New Mexico State instead,’” he said, and that’s what he did.
Herrera said at first he thought he wanted to be an educator, maybe a math teacher.
“My dad said I should try electrical engineering, and then maybe we could grow it into something else,” he said.
But when he graduated from NMSU in 1999 with an engineering degree, with an emphasis in electric power systems, there were more opportunities at hand. At his father’s urging, he set out to pursue a job with an electric utility company. None being found in New Mexico, Herrera followed his heart as a San Francisco 49ers fan and went to work for Pacific Gas and Electric in the Bay Area.
But after a year of doing transmission planning and model reports, Herrera was ready to come back home.
“I needed my green chile fix,” he quipped.
Herrera got within smelling distance of roasted green chile by landing a job with Salt River Project, a public utility that served nearly 1 million customers in the Phoenix area.
“They brought me into system design,” he said. “It was technical but hands-on and got me out in the field. I enjoyed that a lot.”
A transfer to system protection allowed him to apply more of his expertise in engineering, but he said it was also an exercise in creative thinking.
“It was more an art than a science,” he said. “I did that for 18 months and got pulled back into substation design.”
Shifting currents
Having established contacts in the industry, Herrera made a career shift and went to work for PDS Consulting of Tempe, Ariz., a firm that assists clients in Arizona, California and Utah with transmission and strategic planning. One of PDS’s clients was Electric District No. 3, a non-profit political subdivision of the State of Arizona that serves a largely agricultural area outside the Phoenix metroplex. Herrera said he did so much work for ED3, “finally they said, ‘Why don’t we offer you a job?’”
Herrera spent five years with ED3 as director of engineering and operations during a time the utility was experiencing tremendous growth. According to its website, ED3 went from a few hundred meters in 2002 to more than 22,500 today.
While working for ED3, Herrera said he oversaw the installation of about $100 million of infrastructure, almost all of it underground, which nearly quadrupled the output from 40 to 150 megawatts.
“I got involved in a lot of things – load forecasting, consumer complaints, budgets, finances, meters,” he said, adding that the system’s expansion took place without having to raise rates.
Meanwhile, Herrera got married and started a family. He and wife, Kim, have three children, a 2-year-old son and twins — a boy and girl — who turn 1 this month. And he was struck by the urge to move closer to home.
“I saw the Socorro job listed and said, ‘You know what? I want to do that,’” he said.
Herrera described Kim as a “great, supporting wife,” and she was willing to let him pursue his ambitions. So he applied for the job when it was advertised in September, and started following the news involving the co-op on the Internet.
Reading about accounting irregularities, forensic audits, the co-op being in financial distress, the danger of defaulting on federal loans and multiple lawsuits between the co-op, its member-owners, trustees and former managers didn’t deter his desire.
“It was the next step in my career path. It was an opportunity, and I thought that I was the right person for the job,” he said.
On the job
Herrera walked into a firestorm at Socorro Electric, but he just might be the right person for the job.
As he no doubt did during the job interview process, Herrera projected himself as intelligent and capable, friendly and polite, and modest yet self-assured. He didn’t shy away from questions (except the one about his age); he listened intently and asked questions of his own.
An outsider to the community, he is no less “one of us” as a New Mexican. He said he knows how things can be “political” in small towns like Socorro, having been raised in a similarly sized town of mixed culture. And though he got just a one-year contract that began Jan. 31, Herrera said he’s in it for the long haul. It is his wish that this next career move will be his last career move.
“I’m hoping to have longevity and retire from here,” he said.
Herrera spent his first few weeks familiarizing himself further with what he walked into and getting to know the employees. He’s been told there are good people working for the co-op and recognizes their importance.
“The staff is what makes the utility run,” he said, adding that he was sympathetic to what everyone has gone through in the last year. “To go through what they did, with the firing of the manager and office manager, people have to pull together.”
But a lot of his time has been spent crunching numbers. The co-op is in technical default on its loans from USDA Rural Utility Service, having operated at a loss for two consecutive years.
“My primary focus is to right the ship and get the financials in order” he said.
Herrera also inherits a proposal for a rate increase the co-op filed with the Public Regulation Commission earlier this month, and was asked about the possibility members might file protests.
“They have a right to speak their voice,” he said, adding rate increases are sometimes dictated by increases in costs charged by Tri-State Generation and Transmission, from whom Socorro Electric buys its power. “If there’s a rate increase, it’s better it’s not a huge increase and happens step by step.”
Herrera then cited the primary mission of any rural electric cooperative.
“The objective is to provide reliable service at a low cost,” he said.
Up to the task
While his service is to the roughly 10,000 customers who are member-owners of the public non-profit corporation, Herrera said he knows who’s boss. Co-ops are set up as democratic organizations where members elect a board of trustees to oversee the operation.
“They get elected for a reason,” he said of the trustees. “A board has the responsibility to provide direction of a nonprofit organization. I’m a facilitator for what they want.”
Herrera said direction isn’t always easily navigated. For example, members passed a bylaw last year to redraw district boundaries, but there’s more than one way to approach that problem.
“The members put the bylaws together, but how do you get from point A to point B?” he asked rhetorically. “It’s a difficult task.”
For all the problems Socorro Electric currently faces, Herrera said he’s happy to be here. It’s a good opportunity for him professionally and allows him to make a difference in shaping the future.
“To me, the good in Socorro outweighs the bad,” he said. “The utility industry is the best industry to work in. It’s part of the history of this country and helped the country progress.”
It also gives Herrera a chance to be part of the solution.
“With good direction and a steady hand, you can work your way through any problem,” he said, perhaps reciting words a father once shouted to his 12-year old son tethered atop a utility pole.
Contact T.S. Last